[Aḥmad:] I was brought from Khurasan as an unborn child, and I was born here in Baghdad. I never knew my father or my grandfather.
[Ibn Ḥātim:] Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥanbal was from Marv. He left Marv as a child in his mother’s womb. His grandfather, Ḥanbal ibn Hilāl, was governor of Sarakhs9 and a descendant of the men who fought for the Abbasids during the revolution.10 1.7
[Aḥmad:] Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā, who was from Marv, reported to me that he heard Aws ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Buraydah report that his brother Sahl ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Buraydah reported, citing his father, who reported it citing the grandfather, Buraydah: “I heard the Emissary, God bless and keep him, say, ‘After I die many expeditions will be sent forth. Join the one sent to Khurasan and settle in the city of Marv. It was built by Dhū l-Qarnayn, who asked God to bless it, and no harm befalls its inhabitants.’”11 1.8
HIS LINEAGE12
[ʿAbd Allāh:] We heard reports from my father, Aḥmad son of Muḥammad son of Ḥanbal son of Hilāl son of Asad son of Idrīs son of ʿAbd Allāh son of Ḥayyān son of ʿAbd Allāh son of Anas son of ʿAwf son of Qāsiṭ son of Māzin son of Shaybān son of Dhuhl son of Thaʿlabah son of ʿUkābah son of Ṣaʿb son of ʿAlī son of Bakr son of Wāʾil son of Qāsiṭ son of Hinb son of Afṣā son of Duʿmī son of Jadīlah son of Asad son of Rabīʿah son of Nizār son of Maʿadd son of ʿAdnān son of Udd son of Udad son of al-Hamaysaʿ son of Ḥamal son of al-Nabt son of Qaydhār son of Ismāʿīl son of Ibrāhīm the Friend of God,13 on whom eternal peace. 2.1
[Ibn Baṭṭah:] Aḥmad’s mother was of Shaybān. Her name was Ṣafiyyah, daughter of Maymūnah, daughter of ʿAbd al-Malik al-Shaybānī of the clan of ʿĀmir. Aḥmad’s father had come to stay as a guest of her clan and then married her. Her grandfather, ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Sawādah ibn Hind al-Shaybānī, was a leader among his people. The Arab tribesmen would camp nearby and she would offer them hospitality.14 2.14
HIS CHILDHOOD
Our exemplar Aḥmad was born in Baghdad, as we have mentioned, and grew up there. After studying with the teachers and Hadith scholars of the city, he set out to seek learning elsewhere as well. 3.1
[Ibn Kurdī:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s house had the One-Eyed Tigris15 directly behind it. 3.2
[Abū ʿAfīf:] Aḥmad was with us in Qurʾan school when he was just a little boy. Even then he stood out. At that time, the caliph was living in al-Raqqah and the courtiers who joined him there began writing letters to their families in Baghdad. When they wanted to reply to a letter, their womenfolk would ask our schoolmaster to send Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal to their homes. The teacher would send him out and off he’d go, looking carefully at the ground. The women often dictated obscene words but he wouldn’t write them down. 3.3
[Abū Sirāj:] When we were in Qurʾan school with Aḥmad, women would send messages to the schoolmaster saying, “Send Ibn Ḥanbal to write for us so we can reply to the letters we’ve received.” Whenever he went in to where the women were, he would keep his head down so as not to look at them.
[Al-Marrūdhī:] Abū Sirāj also said that his father, whose name he gave, was impressed by how well Aḥmad conducted himself: “One day my father said to us, ‘I spend money to hire tutors for my children hoping they’ll learn to behave properly, but it doesn’t seem to do any good. Then take Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal: he’s an orphan, but look how well he’s turned out!’16 He went on marveling for some time.” 3.4
[Al-Marrūdhī:] Aḥmad told me, “When I was a boy, I would go to the Qurʾan school, and then when I was fourteen I took up duties.”17 3.5
[Abū l-Munabbih:] The first we heard of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was when his uncle received a letter from the authorities. He wrote a reply which he gave to Aḥmad, who was supposed to pass it on to a courier who was waiting for it. But instead of handing it over, Aḥmad put it inside an alcove18 they had in the house. When the courier asked for it, the uncle replied that he had already sent it out. He then asked Aḥmad, “Where’s the letter I asked you to give the man at the door?” 3.6
“He was wearing a long-sleeved gown,”19 he replied. “You’ll find your letter in the alcove.”20
[Al-ʿAbbās:] Dāwūd ibn Bisṭām told me: “Once when the briefing from Baghdad was delayed, I sent word to Aḥmad’s uncle telling him I was hoping to write up all the dispatches to forward to the caliph but his still hadn’t arrived. He replied that he had sent his nephew to deliver it. Then he sent for Aḥmad, who was only a boy at the time. 3.7
“‘Didn’t I tell you to deliver my report?’ he asked.
“‘Yes,’ replied Aḥmad.
“‘Why didn’t you, then?’
“‘I used to carry those reports but not any more.21 I threw it into the water.’”
Ibn Bisṭām then recited «We are of God, and to Him we return!»22 adding: “When a boy has such scruples, where does that leave us?”23
[Yūnus al-Muʾaddib:] I saw Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal while Hushaym was still alive, and even then he was already well respected. 3.8
[Al-Marrūdhī:] I heard Aḥmad say, “When Hushaym died I was twenty years old.”24
[A fellow Hadith-seeker:] Aḥmad always stood out. One day, I was waiting for him at Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayyah’s. At the time, Aḥmad was not yet thirty. But when he came in, everyone tried to clear a space for him, calling out, “Come sit over here!” 3.9
THE BEGINNING OF HIS SEARCH FOR KNOWLEDGE AND THE JOURNEY HE UNDERTOOK FOR THAT PURPOSE25
Aḥmad began his studies with the learned men of Baghdad. He then traveled to Kufa, Basra, Mecca, Medina, Yemen, Syria, and northern Iraq, writing down what he acquired from the men of learning in each region he visited. 4.1
[Aḥmad:] The first teacher whose Hadith I wrote down was Abū Yūsuf.26 4.2
[Aḥmad:] I started learning Hadith when I was sixteen. When Hushaym died, I was twenty. I first heard Hadith from him in 179 [795–96]. 4.3
[Aḥmad:] I started in ’79 [795–96], when I was sixteen.27 That was my first year studying Hadith. I remember someone coming up to us and saying that Ḥammād ibn Zayd was dead. That was also the year we lost Mālik ibn Anas. In 198 [813–14], when we were studying with ʿAbd al-Razzāq in Yemen, we heard that Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, and Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd were gone, too.28 4.4
[Aḥmad:] I heard Hadith from Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb in Basra in ’94 [809–10], and from Abū l-Nuʿmān ʿĀrim in the same year, and from ʿUmar al-Ḥawḍī too.
[Aḥmad:] I started studying Hadith in ’79. 4.5
[Aḥmad:] I started studying Hadith in ’79. I remember going